In a computer system, icons are used to represent and identify data objects (also referred to as files) and groupings of data objects (also referred to as “folders”). The data objects are stored within the computer system storage area (i.e. digital memory) and when the cursor is moved over the icon and the user input interface is activated, the selected data object is selected and accessed from memory. When a file is accessed and it corresponds to, for example, a text document, the document is displayed on the computer screen. When a folder is accessed (i.e. “opened”), a window is displayed showing a listing of the files that the folder holds.
In one common prior art method, the icon used to represent the folder is embodied as a small image of a manila folder. The icon used to represent a file often corresponds to a combination of the application or software program that created the file and the file type. For instance, if a document is created by a particular word processing application, then the icon used to represent the document file is embodied as an icon (10, FIG. 1) representative of that particular word processing application and file type (e.g., .rtf, .doc, .jpg, etc.). As a result, all documents created by the same word processing application are often represented by the same icon and need further identification. In order to identify these files, user specified text (11) (often referred to as the filename) may be inserted to the side or beneath the icon to identify the contents of the file.
In addition, many icons are often simultaneously displayed on the computer screen to provide the user with a list of files and folders to choose from. However, the problem is that each file potentially can be identified by the same icon, making it difficult to discern between the files and folders. Moreover, reading through the filenames can be tedious, inaccurate, or lacking information.
In another prior art technique, icons are represented by corresponding “thumbnails” of the file contents or portions of the contents. Hence, this type of icon is embodied as a miniature of the actual file contents (or a portion thereof) instead of a symbolic representation of the file. This technique can be useful if the user wants to get information about the contents of the file without opening it, however, it does not provide a convenient way to manage, view, compare common characteristics, or quickly discern between many listed files displayed on a computer screen. Consequently, this icon simply provides the user a way to view the contents of an individual file without the inconvenience of “opening” it.
In another prior art technique, icons are generated having an outside border for symbolically representing one aspect of the file and having an inside portion for symbolically representing another aspect of the file. The outside border represents file type. For instance, different patterns of the border corresponds to different file formats (i.e., .doc, .txt, .jpg). The center of the icon symbolically represents the parent application used to create the file. Hence, the combination of the border and center patterns of the icon symbolically show information relating to the file type and application type. However, this symbolic icon does not provide information relating to the file contents and consequently does not provide the user a way to discern easily between the many files.
In another prior art technique for viewing a listing of files on a computer screen, when a cursor is moved over a file icon, a textual display of information appears next to the icon which describes a variety of information about the file. Hence, in this case, icons are still used to symbolically represent the word processing application and additional information about the file is explicitly displayed dependent on the users actions.
The problem with these file identification and listing techniques is that they provide very specific and limited amounts of information primarily for the purpose of avoiding “opening” file. Moreover, these icons do not provide a manner in which to manipulate, compare, and evaluate the file listing in the case in which files have common characteristics. For instance, a user may want to identify files or identify similarities between files so as to group/categorize them or to obtain statistical data about them without “opening” each file. The user may also want to compare a variety of common characteristics, not specific information like file type, using the symbolic information provided by the icons.
As a specific example, a teacher may have the answers to a number of different tests for a large number of students stored in a plurality of files (one file per test taken by a student) that are listed/represented on a display screen of a computer system by a plurality of icons. In order to ascertain statistical information about the students, tests, test questions, etc. the teacher may want to determine how many of the students answered a particular question wrong on a particular test during a particular grading period just from viewing the icon listing of test files. That same teacher may later want to re-group the listing of test file icons to ascertain other statistical information regarding the tests. However, none of the above file identification techniques allow the logical grouping of files by symbolically identifying common characteristics between listed files using an icon.
What would be desirable is a multi-component icon that identifies characteristics of a data object that allows the user to intuitively display icons so as to compare common file characteristics between many displayed customized icons.